Posted
by
samzenpus
on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @09:32PM
from the floating-cheese-curls dept.

Nancy_A writes "There might be a new favorite hang-out for astronauts aboard the International Space Station later this year. The Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) will become a permanent module on the station, and will be brought up on the STS-133 mission, scheduled for September 2010. The new module might provide a haven for astronauts to get away from it all. '"The thought is, the PMM might become sort of a 'man cave,'" said Mike Kinslow, the Boeing payload manager at the Kennedy Space Center. "It won't have all the background noise of fans, computers and other equipment running like in the laboratories, so it will be a quieter atmosphere that might appeal to the astronauts during their off-duty hours."' Plus, NASA's Robonaut 2, or R2 will be brought up on the same flight. Any chance R2 could be programmed to serve drinks or bring food into the man cave?"

Ever read 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?' Unfortunately, I have. That's where the phrase 'man cave' comes from. It's a stupid phrase based on the stupid idea that men are all neanderthals who need the solitude of a nice cave to unwind. We're not all like that. For instance, I'm actually pretty fun at parties and consider socializing relaxing. Like a girl, if you believe the book.

They *can* use any words they like, but the words they choose are open to critique. I am allowed to believe that people are wrong, and that their behavior is based on faulty premises. In this case, his choice of words shows that Mike Kinslow uses sexist terms from the 80's when talking about things my tax dollars help fund. I have written to him suggesting that he reexamine his assumptions about gender, behavior and career choices in light of a great deal of evidence that su

How so? If I advocate for freedom over license, am I not advocating for my own free speech? Are you claiming I'm taking license by being an ass? How is it hurting anyone? I'm making a joke! Of course they can call it their 'man cave.' And I can laugh at them because I think that's a funny phrase.

Oh, I get it. You thought I was complaining about the 'man' part of it. Nope. I was not saying, "ooh, MAN cave, that's sexist." I explained why I think it's a goofy phrase down below a bit. Man cave. Hehehe.

Besides, my sig is a quote. I can't very well misquote the guy, can I? He said men, but it was pretty clear he meant 'mankind' by the context. Man cave is sex specific, but again, that's not really the reason "Man cave" makes me chuckle.

The concept has been introduced in the 90s in the "new man" pseudo-psychology thinking of/for women.The "mancave"-state of mind is described in "Men are from Mars, Women from Venus", where they describe men need some off-time staring in the fire to wind down, while women need to verbalize and socialize to achieve the same thing.

Hence resulting in conflict as the "man" wants to chil lout, watch a game, do man-stuff to process his day or forget about i

I don't have 'man-cave' longings because I like to socialize. Which makes me a girl according to the book. Which makes the book puerile, that is, childishly simplistic. Some women are introverts, not all guys need solitude.

Man cave longings are not childish. The book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is childish. It's an entire inane book written around the idea that 'boys will be boys and girls will be girls' and while it may contain some generalities helpful to anyone who has never in their life had

I don't. Oh, but I have XX chromosomes and female primary and secondary sexual characteristics, so I guess my "play solitaire" instincts must be something else.

Heterogeneity between individuals will always dwarf homogeneity within genders. The sooner humans internalize this the sooner I can stop dealing with macho idiots, their assumptions and phrases like "mancave".

"Would you bring a hot woman into your man cave, to have sex with her?"All straight men who use the phrase 'man cave' will answer yes to this question."So, you would enjoy some action in your man cave?"If you can manage to get that line out with a straight face, he will probably answer yes. This next bit is significantly harder, as it may require you to feign attraction to the troglodyte in order to throw him off: "Oooh, sexy! You want to

I guess it must be that I assume all men would like to retreat like hermits into their cave because I sometimes feel like this (not a real cave BTW). I understand what you say about the heterogeneity of features within-category and between-category but often it's easy to fall back into the trap of over-generalization.

You should be able to program the drink-serving robot so that you can utter a quick command without say missing something on the space-sized big screen tv. Some command for example to get drinks for two could be D2 (meaning drinks for two). You would thus, command the robot by getting its attention and ordering by uttering thusly: R2D2!If you could threaten to have a restraining bolt installed if it should disobey, things could get very cosy.

I can understand that a mainstream (non-tech) news website would focus on a cutesy term like "man cave" to describe this new module, but would it have killed the Slashdot editors to include something about what the module is actually going to be used for?

(turns out it'll be used as a storeroom. It doesn't have enough radiation shielding to allow it to be used as crew quarters).

No, it's not a "man cave", and no, the R2 robot will not be used to serve drinks. It'll be used to investigate the potential of robots to perform EVA duties.

She didn't make it up, she quoted a senior official - the Boeing payload manager at KSC (Mike Kinslow). This is the first public mention that I've seen, but it is in the planning stages (as a recent addition, which is why this is the first public mention of it).

I can understand that a mainstream (non-tech) news website would focus on a cutesy term like "man cave" to describe this new module, but would it have killed the Slashdot editors to include something about what the module is actually going to be used for?

(turns out it'll be used as a storeroom. It doesn't have enough radiation shielding to allow it to be used as crew quarters).

No, it's not a "man cave", and no, the R2 robot will not be used to serve drinks. It'll be used to investigate the potential of robots to perform EVA duties.

The article states that at the moment it doesn't have enough radiation shielding yet, but it will have it and be ready in 4 months. From the article:

"Turning Leonardo into a permanent module will take some work, said NASA Payload Manager Joe Delai. "Once it returns from this flight we will beef up the external shield and change things internally to become a permanent module. It will be about a four month process to get it ready."

Thats why it will be re-launched in September this year. And when it is relaunched and made a permanent module it will become their 'man cave'.

"Turning Leonardo into a permanent module will take some work, said NASA Payload Manager Joe Delai. "Once it returns from this flight we will beef up the external shield and change things internally to become a permanent module. It will be about a four month process to get it ready."

Thats why it will be re-launched in September this year. And when it is relaunched and made a permanent module it will become their 'man cave'.

I can understand that a mainstream (non-tech) news website would focus on a cutesy term like "man cave" to describe this new module, but would it have killed the Slashdot editors to include something about what the module is actually going to be used for?

(turns out it'll be used as a storeroom. It doesn't have enough radiation shielding to allow it to be used as crew quarters).

No, it's not a "man cave", and no, the R2 robot will not be used to serve drinks. It'll be used to investigate the potential of robots to perform EVA duties.

If there isn't much in the way of radiation shielding for this new module why would the astronauts want to use it at all, let alone as a frequent place for R&R?

Yeah, and R2 could make sure you do a good job of it too, clean up afterwards and everything. In fact, they should equip the thing with a big "rack" to "give rise" to the astronauts. Also, then they could call him R2D2!

(I realize the joke was totally stupid, feel free to point out one or several of the many ways in which I achieved fail)